SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD – REVIEW OF SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Sizwe Banzi is Dead is an extraordinary play by Athol Fugard in collaboration with  John Kani and Winston Ntshona, two actors who appeared in the play in Cape Town and in London. The play premiered in 1972 when apartheid was a vile fact of life in South Africa.

In Soulpepper’s production Tawiah M’Carthy plays Sizwe Banzi and Amaka Umeh plays Styles and Buntu, directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu.  

We first meet Umeh in the role of Styles, in his tiny photography studio in Port Elizabeth. Sporting a white shirt and a bowtie, Styles is an appealing and colourful character. He is a natural storyteller and for about three quarters of an hour he will be alone on stage informing and entertaining us. He rarely stops moving as he relates stories about life including his stint working for the Ford motor company when the big boss came to visit. Amaka Umeh is a woman but she handles the role with such aplomb that one hardly notices her gender.

Styles is affable and no doubt wants to be likeable to draw in business. We know that he is working under the oppressive regime of apartheid where the white ruling class does not consider him human. Umeh switches from Styles to Buntu, Sizwe’s friend with whom he discovers the body of a dead man in an alley near a bar.

Styles played by Amaka Umeh and Sizwe Banzi played by 

Tawiah M'Carthy. Photo credit: Dahlia Katz

Sizwe Banzi has come to Port Elizabeth looking for work and goes to Styles Photography to have his picture taken so he can send it to his wife and children in another town. His identity presents a problem. He is caught without a work permit and is given three days to find a job or clear out of town. He cannot find a job and he is a dead man.

The inventive Buntu recommends to Sizwe to take the dead man’s identity book and take his name, Robert Zwelinzima. after switching the photograph. In other words, Sizwe Banzi must “die” and come to life as the dead man who happens to have a pass for working.

Sizwe resists changing his identity for practical (what am I going to tell my wife and children?) and far more fundamental reasons. In desperation, he asks if he is a man or not and takes off his clothes to show us that he is indeed a man. But not in the South Africa of his day. 

Taking away one’s identity is like removing one’s soul and Fugard and his co-writers make that point poignantly clear and without being preachy. Styles’ description of what happened at the Ford Motor Company is satirical rather than critical and the play makes its point in a frequently light mood on a topic that does not bear lightness.

In the end Sizwe and Styles return to the photo studio and Sizwe poses for his picture, perhaps as Robert Zwelinzima. Has he reverted to Sizwe or is he dead and has taken on another identity. If so, the triumph of the apartheid regime is complete. They have reduced people to passbooks.

Otu does a superb job of directing the play which has many complexities despite the surface appearance of simplicity. The performance seemed to lag somewhat in the second half and I could not decide if it was intentional or not. Overall, this is a superb production  of  an outstanding play.  

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Sizwe Banzi is Dead by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona continues until June 17, 2023, at Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca.

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press